As the popularity of mobile devices, particularly smartphones, has increased, electronics companies have responded by introducing an array of differing platforms for mobile devices. To meet the needs of end users utilizing differing mobile platforms, application developers are challenged to provide mobile applications that can run on numerous platforms. Meeting this challenge is generally a burden, as it requires developing completely different applications for different platforms, each application performing essentially the same functions but built atop widely diverging specifications.
Further, the conditions in which an application runs on a particular mobile platform can vary. For example, in some instances a mobile device may be connected to a network, while in other instances, no network may be available. If application developers hope to achieve the most robust performance of their applications, they must either provide different applications for different conditions on each mobile platform, or they must carefully code their applications to behave differently under different circumstances.
As a result, to produce a robust mobile applications, a developer can either provide numerous versions of an application, each customized for a particular platform running under particular conditions, or the developer consolidate potential versions into unwieldy code that requires complex installation and is difficult to update as technology and preferences evolve.